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What ever happened to serving your country quietly and anonymously? Apparently, the Navy SEALs want to be Kardashians instead. At our peril. The latest case of that is the seven Navy SEALs who gave out classified information when they advised makers of a video game, ironically called, “Medal of Honor.” There is no honor in seeking to be a star when your job is to remain silent and protect America’s interests.

Seven members of SEAL Team Six have been punished for supporting development of a video game released last month, according to a U.S. military official.

The SEALs worked as paid consultants for Electronic Arts, the company that made “Medal of Honor Warfighter.” They received letters of reprimand and forfeited half of their pay for two months. . . .

The official did not say what, if any, information the SEALs revealed by participating in the video game’s development. However, a written statement from Deputy Commander of Naval Special Warfare, Rear Admiral Garry Bonelli, indicates this is more about making an example of these sailors after a string of high-profile SEAL products. . . .

The video game hit store shelves on October 23. In a press release, EA said “Medal of Honor Warfighter” was “written by actual U.S. Tier 1 Operators while deployed overseas,” and that it “features a dotted line to real world events and provides players a view into globally recognized threats and situations letting them experience the action as it might have unfolded.”

Let me tell you something: members of Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah and the Taliban aren’t giving out tips to video game makers or movie producers. They are focused on beating us. Sadly our side is focused on attention whoring. But that’s what happens when you live in a fame-obsessed culture, where people get reality TV shows because they made porno tapes (Kim Kardashian), had kids out of wedlock (“Teen Mom”), or because they are hoarders or have weird habits, like eating rocks. Everyone wants to get in on the action. Including Navy SEALs who are supposed to remain anonymous and shut the bleep up.

I’ve written before about the Navy SEALs’ apparent obsession with PR and blabbing. It’s a huge national security concern, and the SEALs who do this–including Matt Bissonette, the author of “No Easy Day,” the book about the Bin Laden kill–are jeopardizing their fellow and future Navy SEALs by giving away methods and other classified information. And they are jeopardizing the rest of America.

What I wrote about Bissonnette applies here in spades:

The men who go into these professions know they are supposed to remain nameless, faceless, and silent. Sadly, in recent years, the Navy SEALs have become a league of publicity hounds, from the anti-Semitic, cheesy “Act of Valor” movie (read my review) to Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who modestly calls himself the best there is–”the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history–in the title of his own book. You don’t see this kind of braggadocio from the Army Special Forces and other similar outfits in the U.S. Armed Forces. And that’s because they know the deal. You don’t get to talk. We simply cannot operate with everyone in these positions of secrecy blabbing to the world.

Retired General James Vaught, who led the U.S. Army’s elite Delta forces, said this about Bissonnette’s book and “Act of Valor,” and it’s spot on for this incident, too:

“Get the hell out of the media . . . We don’t ever want to get to the point where our sensitive tactics, techniques and procedures are open for everybody to take a look at so the next time we come in on a target we are exposed.” . . .

“They are trying to appoint themselves as unique heroes, when they’re no damn thing. I had guys that worked for me that make them look like children,” he said.

“I think it’s a stupid act and a very grand disservice to the other members of the SEAL community,” Gen. Vaught said.

18 Responses

Yeah you right Deb.

If you want to see how’s it done right,check out Franklin D. Miller’s book “Reflections of a Warrior”

He was in MACV SOG for 6 years in Vietnam.He gave nothing away in his book,yet it gives one of the most down to earth realistic depictions of what went on over there,that I’ve ever read.
He recieved the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Nixon.
He was the Audie Murphy that you never heard of for our generation.

You cannot totally blame the Seals for leaking Secrets when the man in the White House did exactly the same thing in his bid to get re-elected, and the whorish admirals and generals leaked military secrets to help their boss, Obama.

It is the military’s M.O. to go after the little guy, while overlooking the high level officers who are committing the same offenses, everyday.

JEG: Huh? Two wrongs don’t make a right. That’s the Obamabot philosophy, not ours. DS

The Officers are supposed to lead by example, Deb. There is a habit in this country to go after the lower ranked personnel, and let the generals, admirals, and colonels skate, unless, of course, the President for some reason doesn’t like that particular officer (usually for being too white, too male, and too straight)..

Well, the military has been infested with political correctness for the last several decades, accompanied by an erosion of the military standards that made this country great. Under the circumstances it is not surprising that a respect for traditional military tradition and norms on the part of personnel has declined at the same time.

How ironic. One group of SEALs, outraged at the leaking of national security secrets by folks in the White House, putting their missions and lives at risk, comes out against those behind such behavior. Other SEALs, seeking a bit of personal glory, do their own share of leaking.

Debbie, I think one factor is that despite their phenomenal training and valor, the current generation of Navy SEALS is one raised on reality TV, media “whoredom”, and video games. Before they were SEALS, they were members of the general public, subject to the same influences as everyone else and it looks like they are taking that with them into the military. And as you highlighted with the comments of General Vaught, it looks like there might be a generation split between the “old school” Spec-Ops folks who believed in STFU, and the new ones who are raised on a steady diet of everyone getting their “15 minutes of fame”. And it is a concern when all Jihadists have to do is play “Medalof Honor” to learn our special forces operational tactics.

One problem may be the overwhelming media attention and worship SEALS have been receiving. It may be proving too hard for these new special forces warriors to resist. To counteract this, I suggest that all Spec-OP mission be classified and locked tight, with no indication given to the public of what kind of Spec-Op team carried out the mission or how they did it. There really isn’t a need for us to know that a mission even took place, However, I understand the need to know that we did finally kill Bin Laden. But all we in the public needed to know is that we got Bin Laden. We didn’t need to know what military team did it or how they did it(although we would have been dying to know!). But maybe in this day of 24/7 news cycles, that may have been too much to ask…

I don’t think it’s a big deal. There have always been technical advisers for the film industry and I’m not sure they divulged anything actually harmful to future tactical missions. It sounds like a lot of hot-air hype from EA to sell more video games. Sounds from their punishment that they got Article 15ed, which is the lightest form of punishment, so it couldn’t have been too terrible.

Plus, they’re Navy, so that explains a lot (Army vet, here – we would never do anything like that

They have been conditioned lately to be more open and accepting to the new world order. Well now they’ve just let the rest of the world in on some information they shouldn’t have. But looking at how they’ve been used and treated, can one really think that we’re not supposed to feel like giving a big hug to those that want to crush us in hopes of them liking us more and thus less prone to do what they’ll always do anyway? They have been watching their country being sold to china and the third world savages for years now, natural for them to suddenly be told that it is not cool to let everyone know everything. But doing a movie to get BHO elected and loosing that classified info is different. Or Biden speaking to a bunch of libs and giving away info as well is wrong. These guys are quitting in unseen numbers for a reason. BHO gave muslim bros a nice fat check recently too, but hey, that’s the new norm. It’s all wrong, it’s upside down.

These people were self-serving idiots. There was no higher purpose served by these acts apart from self-aggrandizement. Navy Seals should never be paid consultants while in uniform. Such people are serving two masters when they do.

You calling the most elite tactical fighting force in the military “whores” is disrespectful.

What you are seeing is the result of the Obama Administration riding the SEAL’s backs as part of his campaign strategy.

1. Biden outed SEAL Team 6 /DEVGRU after the Bin Laden raid. Effectively putting the families of active SEAL Team members at risk. SEAL members were instructing their families to remove all information on themselves from all Social media for security reasons – we used to call that treason during war time.

2. The Obama Administration used the SEALS for a Hollywood movie.

3. For the last two years at least SEALS have been running over 45 operations a month on a continual basis, then reup, and reup again pushing these warriors to the limit.

4. Obama made the SEAL’s a political pawn and now they are going to make an example out of them for providing technical services on a video game –

Your analysis on this one was as Obama said, “Shoot first Aim later”

You are entitled to your opinion but calling them “whores” is way over the top considering the sacrifices these elite operators and their families make for the country. Lord knows they are not in this for the money.

I agree with you to a point, NSAM, but, WWRMD. What would Richard Marcinko do? He is the Godfather of the Seals. He’s written several “fiction” books and a biography, but I do not think he revealed ANY tactics. Times have changed, unfortunately. Get yours is the order of the day. Ii do believe that, with Obama taking credit for the op, the seals wanted to set the record straight. But to go into detail was wrong.

Munny, you’re wrong on Marcinko. His first book gave away a lot. At the time it came out, brass figured it was best to just leave it alone and not give the guy more credit. I remember working on bases with shitty security. Like all of them. He exposed it with Nuke subs. That’s not important????? The stuff those guys do just to qualify has my eternal respect. Period. Now their being cheapened somewhat, but their still the baddest on the planet. Like a good friend who pisses you off, you have to give them a chance for all the good stuff they’ve done for you.